An interesting hand from a local club

[luis]

[hv=d=e&v=n&n=sxxxhxxxdaqjxxxcj&s=skxhaxdxcakqt9xxx]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

East opens 2♦ either F#nnery or a weak two suited hand in the majors. West is going to bid 4♥ if allowed.

You are in south with da-bomb what is your plan?

I'm also posting the North hand so you can guess your possible auctions with your pd.

If you "land" in 5♣ how do you play on a heart lead?

If you "land" in 6♣ how do you play on a heart lead?

 

Luis

[cherdano]

With the South hand, I would wonder whether Luis might bid 6♣ with this, then I would realize that we are unfavorable, which would make me happy because 5♣ now describes my hand more or less.

 

I think I would pass as North.

 

As for the play, I would need to know more (lead, range of 2♦ bid). If it was a Flannery opening, I would probably just play for the spade finesse.

 

Arend

[mikeh]

Much as I'd like to claim that I'd bid 3N (and then partner can bid 4N over the 4♥) the reality is that I'd bid a pedestrian 5♣ over 2♦: I think that the standard approach is that one does not preempt over a preempt, so this is a good 'to play' bid. However, the ambiguity of the 2♦ bid plus the extreme nature of the jump may invalidate this assumption.

 

In any event, I am going to find myself in 5♣.

 

In both 5 and 6♣, I run my trump.

 

By the time I have played 7 of them, I probably have a good idea of whether East held 5♥. If he did not, then he has the weak variety. (Of course, had I given West a chance to bid 4♥, I'd have a big clue already: he might well have bid ♠ with 4=3 in the majors and might not have bid at all with a weak hand and that shape)

 

All depends on what is going on, but I suspect that it will seem like a good idea to play my last trump, reducing dummy to stiff ♠ and AQJ of ♦ and my hand to Kx♠ and x x in the reds.

 

In my perfect world, the ♦K is onside and I now take the ♦ finesse.

 

At that point, I am either down or at a crossroads. If the ♠A is onside, I can pitch my small ♥ and lead a ♠. If the ♠A is offside, it is either stiff (I exit a ♠ and make West lead from Kx♦) or doubleton (I cash the ♦A and drop the King)

 

I strongly suspect that I will have a very good idea as to the ending, but cannot announce my line without being at the table. The pretty play is to exit the ♠ :unsure:

[Al_U_Card]

well, against Flannery, I play dbl = 15-17 NT, 2H is a takeout of a 1H opener, 2S is natural, 2NT is the minors and 3 m are natural and show a good hand.....so I would....pass. When LHO bids something, I will know better what the hand looks like. While he may pass with long diamonds, this never happens.

[awm]

I would bid 3NT over 2♦. At this point it's north's guess what to do over 4♥. Competing to 4NT is actually fairly reasonable (and likely wins the board) but a double from north is also pretty likely, which south should pull to 5♣ with such an offensive-oriented hand.

 

In 5♣, it seems evident that LHO has at least as many hearts as spades. Otherwise why 4♥ and not 4♠? Since I doubt LHO would bid this way with 3-3 in the majors and not much in the way of values, it seems reasonable to assume that LHO has four hearts and three spades, with opener having the weak variety including five spades and four hearts.

 

Surely it must be right to pull trumps after winning the ♥A. This will give a count on both hands, assuming the major suit distributions described. If RHO has two-three clubs, then I will take the diamond finesse. If RHO has zero-one club, I'll play a diamond to the ace and take the spade finesse.

[pclayton]

I'd do the same as Adam; bid 3N and then 4N. If we are wide open in diamonds; so be it.

 

I might change my mind if I get an emphatic double from LHO. If RHO doubles, I'll sit.

[han]

At the table I'm pretty sure that I'd bid 3NT. Maybe later I'd come to realize that this was really bad.

[Free]

There are 2 lines of play that seem interesting to me:

- take the ♥A, ♦A and play ♦Q discarding your ♥ loser. Next, you can play ♣J and depending on how ♦s went, ♦J hoping to discard a ♠, OR just finesse in ♠, whatever looks best...

- play trumps and finesse in ♦ hoping for K with West and ♠A with East.

 

The first line is probably best, but not sure.

[luis]

For the record I considered 6♣ and 3NT and bid 3NT, LHO raised to 4♥ and pd bid 5♦ a bid that I didn't like at all and I still don't like but once done it's done. Over 5♦ I bid 6♣ not convinced but I had no choice. As Mikeh correctly spotted in 6♣ you need to guess the location of the spade ace and the distribution, from the discards and some guessing after the 7 clubs were run I decided to play for the squeeze and cashed the 8th club, LHO kept the singleton spade Ace and 3 diamonds, so diamond finesse, spade and he was endplayed.

 

What I find curious about this hand is that if LHO doesn't bid 4♥ we don't get to 6♣ and even more curious if pd doesn't missbid 5♦ I would have raised myself to 4NT so we wouldn't reach 6♣ either. Is this something to analyze about high-level competitive bidding? I don't have a clue :-)

 

Luis